Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA)

Protecting your rights when you’re dealing with collectors.

Has an aggressive collector made you question whether their behavior is illegal? With the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA for short), there’s a good chance it was just that.

The FDCPA is a vital piece of legislation that keeps you protected against unfair collections tactics. It helps ensure that while collectors can be aggressive in attempting to collect on an outstanding debt, they can only go so far with that aggression within the boundaries of the law.

Fact: The FTC received 117,374 FDCPA collections complaints for third-party collectors in 2011.

Understanding the FDCPA

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act was originally put into law in 1978 as a piece of the Consumer Credit Protection Act. It establishes standards of practices for collecting on outstanding debts. This includes all types of debts, including credit cards, car loans, mortgages, and even unpaid medical bills.

The following list provides a breakdown of the most essential regulations set in place by the FDCPA:

Limits hours when collections phone calls can be made – so a collector cannot call you at all hours of the day and night.

Gives restrictions to the number of calls that can be placed regarding a debt in a single day.

What does the FDCPA really do?

Of course, if you are currently dealing with collectors you may be wondering just what benefit the FDCPA actually provides. After all, your collectors are probably calling every day to attempt to collect and using what can seem like every trick in the book to do it.

Unless a collectors behavior violates one of the restrictions, their practice is considered fair. A creditor can absolutely call you every day, but they cannot call forty times in one day. They can even threaten, but those threats have to fall within the limits of the law. So if the company is seeking a court-order against you, they can tell you that… as long as it’s true.

With the FDCPA, timing is everything

For the FDCPA to apply, you have to dealing with a collector.

What does that mean? Typically, that the debt is at least 6 months past due.

Making a late payment will not send the account into collections. When debt is sent to an in-house or third-party collection office, the collector’s practice is regulated by the FDCPA. That typically happens after six months of nonpayment.

The FDCPA does not regulate attempts to receive payments. Additionally, if you get any for of legal representation for something like bankruptcy, it means you are prohibited from being contacted according to the FDCPA. They must go through your attorney.

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